Latest Word play Podcast Episodes
Sunday, March 17, 2024 - SOCA is sooooo good!
Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword - March 18, 2024 01:00 - 22 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsSend us a Text Message. This marks Simeon Siegel's 12th NYTimes crossword, and it is a masterpiece! There's no telling how long it took to make, but no matter how long, it was worth the wait, one of those "I can remember where I was when I solved it" puzzles that makes you glad to be alive. Dee...
Saturday, March 16, 2024 - Can't spell STROPHE? No worries, it's not a cataSTROPHE 🙄
Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword - March 17, 2024 01:00 - 23 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsSend us a Text Message. After Friday's mental melee, today's crossword was slightly easier, but still not a walk in the park, not by a long stretch. It was a Saturday, designed to confuse and confound, and it did so in spades. We have all the details, as well as our JAMCOTWA (Jean And Mike Cros...
Thursday, March 14, 2024 - Happy π Day, or if the former was Greek to you, Happy 🥧 Day!
Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword - March 15, 2024 02:00 - 14 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsSend us a Text Message. Today is Pi Day - 3/14 - and the NYTimes is celebrating in grand style (ok, perhaps not the entire newspaper, but certainly the crossword section). To see what happens when the gray lady lets down her hair, so to speak, be sure and check out today's podcast! Show note ...
Wednesday, March 24, 2024 - CHIWETELEJIOFOR, a great actor and an awesome crossword answer!
Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword - March 14, 2024 02:00 - 15 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsSend us a Text Message. Today's crossword was the ideal middle-of-the-week puzzle; a fun but accessible theme, a smattering of debut answers and a host of intriguing clues. We have -- of course! -- all the deets inside, so do have a listen, and, as usual, let us know what you think! Show notes...
Tuesday, March 12, 2024 - There's a bit of DRAMA in today's grid ... right there, 1D, DRAMA 😀
Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword - March 13, 2024 02:00 - 17 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsSend us a Text Message. Andrew Kingsley and Garret Chalfin have teamed up to produce a fine Tuesday crossword, with some good clues, some great clues, and some awesome clues. In the latter category we have 35D, Show stoppers?, ADS 😀; 51A, Liquid-ATE, MELT 🙄; and 50D, Anonymous creator of a pain...
Monday, March 11, 2024 - A grid filled to the BRIM with great clues!
Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword - March 12, 2024 01:00 - 14 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsSend us a Text Message. Today's crossword is by award winning (!) crossword constructor Rebecca Goldstein and Rachel Fabi, and the two have constructed a wonderful puzzle that is sure to whet your appetite for more of their work. The theme -- which will also whet your appetite -- is fine, but t...
Sunday, March 10, 2024 - Not a hard-scrabble crossword ... but Scrabble *was* involved
Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword - March 11, 2024 03:00 - 15 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsSend us a Text Message. Enrique Henestroza Anguiano and Matthew Stock have teamed up to rack 'em up, with a clever Scrabble-based theme. It briefly looked like today might been a four leaf clover of a crossword, a Sunday puzzle with a rebus: but in this case, the trick was to construct the reb...
Saturday, March 9, 2024 - What's the cure for an INFODEMIC? A DIGITALDETOX!
Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword - March 10, 2024 02:00 - 16 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsSend us a Text Message. A fine Saturday crossword by John Guzzetta -- and if that name seems familiar, that's perhaps because he has had 40 NYTimes crosswords published since 2012. Of those, 50% of them were Friday or Saturday puzzles, so he's definitely in his element here. Though themeless ...
Friday, March 8, 2024 - Yup, definitely a Friday crossword!
Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword - March 09, 2024 02:00 - 17 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsSend us a Text Message. There were challenges galore in today's crossword, with the rockiest of rocky shoals cropping up in the southwest portion of the grid. There were so many great clues that it would take, oh, a 15x15 grid to list all of them, but here are a few (that didn't make it into th...
Thursday, March 7, 2024 - J.B. Smoove, one smoove operator
Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword - March 08, 2024 02:00 - 16 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsSend us a Text Message. This is Joe O'Neill's very first NYTimes crossword, and it's a doozie, with the theme revolving around one of Robert Frost's most famous poems. Now "famous" is relative: while Jean had a casual acquaintance with the poem, Mike was, as usual, clueless -- and therefore ans...
Wednesday, March 6, 2024 - Nothing JERKY about this crossword ... except the JERKY 😀
Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword - March 07, 2024 03:00 - 14 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsSend us a Text Message. Brad Wiegmann has produced a fabulous Wednesday crossword, and for those keeping track this is the second crossword this week where the theme was on the subtle and cerebral side. We loved it for a number of reasons, detailed inside -- as well as some exciting listener ma...
Tuesday, March 5, 2024 - DWEEBY, SLANGY and EEK - 3 answers in today's grid, and a law firm to be avoided at all costs 😀
Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword - March 06, 2024 02:00 - 16 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsSend us a Text Message. Today's crossword was by veteran crossword constructor Christina Iverson, who has a knack for writing absolutely effervescent puzzles. Just consider a few of the clues in today's grid: 51A, Queen's pawn?, ANT (nice once, CI); 42D, Swift to fill a concert hall?, TAYLOR (w...
Monday, March 4, 2024 - This crossword? It's both a debut and a BEAUT!
Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword - March 05, 2024 02:00 - 13 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsSend us a Text Message. This is Samantha Podos Novak's debut NYTimes crossword, and it is a delicious treat, thanks to a tasty theme and a generous sprinkling of cromulent clues throughout the grid. And if you're sensing a food theme, you are correct! For all the deets -- including which food,...
Sunday, March 3, 2024 - Three, two, one, blastoff! 🚀
Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword - March 04, 2024 03:00 - 20 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsSend us a Text Message. You can always count on Hoang-Kim Vu to produce a splendid crossword, and today you can also count on him to ... count, because that's the theme: countdown, to be specific, is the title of the crossword as well as a large hint as to what you have to be able to do to solv...
Saturday, March 2, 2024 -The Book of 1001 SAT Words will be arriving FORTHWITH, or at least posthaste 😀
Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword - March 03, 2024 02:00 - 16 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsSend us a Text Message. Natan Last has constructed 39 crosswords for the NYTimes, and this latest one shows exactly why the NYTimes keeps coming back for more - the clues are simply inspired, dancing on that fine line between uber-challenging and cruel, but always landing on the right side. S...
Friday, March 1, 2024 - In like a lion ...
Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword - March 02, 2024 03:00 - 13 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsSend us a Text Message. A roaringly good Friday crossword to end the business week! There was no theme, but there were a host of awesome clues, including: 38A, Shade akin to peridot, LIME (peridot, what a word!); 33D, Where you might run into some real characters, THEMEPARK (brilliant!); 9D, Ne...
Thursday, February 29, 2024 - Leaping lizards, it's a leap day crossword!
Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword - March 01, 2024 02:00 - 21 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsSend us a Text Message. Whether this was in honor of Leap Day or not (only Will knows, and he's not saying), today's crossword was extra special, most notably because of some of the clues weren't just text, but in fact cute line drawings of assorted animals playing musical instruments. The lin...
Wednesday, February 28, 2024 - Finally, a crossword that answers that burning question: WHATITSALLABOUT?
Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword - February 29, 2024 03:00 - 15 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsSend us a Text Message. A debut crossword by Greg Snitkin, but you wouldn't know it based on the quality of today's puzzle. The theme was terrif, and was abetted by a passel of captivating clues to round off the grid. While a lot of old friends showed up (looking at you, 15A, McFlurry flavor, ...
Tuesday, February 27, 2024 - ;-), meet your grandchild, 😉
Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword - February 28, 2024 02:00 - 14 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsSend us a Text Message. A lot of INK went into today's crossword, in such answers as SLINKYDOG, WINKYFACE and 5 (!) more of that ink, er, we mean ilk, 😀. Numerous clues got our attention and podcast time, but we would also like to celebrate 49D, Tatted, INKED (yay, more ink 😀); 9D, "It's Rainin...
Monday, February 26, 2024 - NAMASTE!
Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword - February 27, 2024 02:00 - 13 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsSend us a Text Message. This is Joe Marquez's second NYTimes crossword (congrats, Joe!) and a very nice piece of work it is. Several clues had a wry twist to them (and we are not just saying that because the theme involved alcohol 🙄). The humor started early, with 1A, Little spheres in a pod, ...
Sunday, February 25, 2024 - Sunday is Punday
Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword - February 26, 2024 02:00 - 19 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsSend us a Text Message. Once again the puns come thick and fast, so if you like puns, well, step this way and download this episode, because it's teeming with them, seven at last count. They're not that bad though, in fact several have groan, er grown on us (and now we're up to eight 😀) A remi...
Saturday, February 24, 2024 - We're willing to let TIGONS be TIGONS 🙄
Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword - February 25, 2024 02:00 - 18 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsSend us a Text Message. A tough but fair Saturday crossword, and, coincidentally (since they always solve independently), both Jean and Mike ended up at the same spot, 20A, Pink-headed mushroom in Mario games, TOADETTE. There were at least two portmanteaus in the grid -- 8A, Hybrid fruit akin t...
Friday, February 23, 2024 - CHEESEDIP and HAUTECUISINE, together at last 😀 😀
Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword - February 24, 2024 02:00 - 15 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsSend us a Text Message. Jean and Mike had entirely different solving experiences tackling today's crossword, a fine effort by Larry Snyder. Jean made short work of it, but Mike started inventing words out of whole cloth, a fraught activity when solving a NYTimes Friday crossword. Yet, while the...
Thursday, February 22, 2024 - This crossword was quite JAKE, and that's no JAPE 😀 😀
Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword - February 23, 2024 02:00 - 14 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsSend us a Text Message. This is Dan Schoenholz's 29th NYTimes crossword, and it shows -- a nicely polished grid, with an exceptional theme. Since the preponderance of Dan's crosswords have appeared on Sunday, it might seem like he'd be a bit constrained, squeezed into a 15x15 grid, but, even wi...
Wednesday, February 21, 2024 - This crossword's got STYLE (and a whole lot of other words 😀)
Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword - February 22, 2024 03:00 - 13 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsSend us a Text Message. Jeffrey Martinovic has managed to work the word TAUTOLOGICAL into the grid, and for that alone he should receive some sort of commendation. But we can't also IGNORE some other great clues, such as 69A, Some downtown street liners, METERS; 11D, Is French?, EST (c'est bon!...
Tuesday, February 20, 2024 - Let's get crackin', and learn how to pronounce KRAKEN
Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword - February 21, 2024 02:00 - 15 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsSend us a Text Message. This is Robert S. Gard's second NYTimes crossword. We reviewed his first in season 8, episode 38, and like that Saturday puzzle, this one was equally august, albeit much easier, as befits a Tuesday . We have all the deets inside, as well as Mike's valiant attempt to not ...
Monday, February 19, 2024 - We'd like to mention the presence of MENSCH in today's crossword 🙄😀
Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword - February 20, 2024 03:00 - 11 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsSend us a Text Message. This is Adam Wagner's 19th NYTimes crossword, but it is a debut, in a sense - his first Monday puzzle. It was a little crunchier than usual, but the theme made it all worthwhile. Deets inside, so have a listen, and as usual, tell others about us on social media. Shownot...
Sunday, February 18, 2024 - We 🎶 HEARDITTHROUGH THEGRAPEVINE 🎶 that this was an awesome crossword!
Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword - February 19, 2024 03:00 - 21 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsSend us a Text Message. Sid Sivakumar dials it back as he slips into his Sunday best, and this was indeed one of his best Sundays, his fourth for the NYTimes. There were some fine clues in the grid, including 75A, Home to the Great Ziggurat of Ur, IRAQ (we just like the sound of "Great Ziggur...
Saturday, February 17, 2024 - Here comes the ... ZITI?
Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword - February 18, 2024 02:00 - 16 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsSend us a Text Message. Spencer Leach and Jem Burch have produced a splendiferous Saturday crossword that entertained, educated, and ... whatever the opposite of enervated is, ah, yes, energized. The highlight of the grid was undoubtedly 60A, Finished, colloquially, DONEZO, although 61A, Drinks...
Friday, February 16, 2024 - Not one SOURNOTE in today's grid, Colin Adam's creation is all NICEWORK
Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword - February 17, 2024 02:00 - 9 minutes ★★★★★ - 24 ratingsSend us a Text Message. Colin Adams has turned in a fine (debut!) Friday crossword: no theme (as befits a Friday puzzle), but plenty of sharp cluing (as one would also expect). We cover a boatload of them in today's podcast, but even the "also-rans" were quite good. Consider 30A, European airli...
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